[1] The scheme of this old national metre, which depends on accent and not on quantity, may be seen from the two examples given below. Various forms are found, but one of the commonest types is identical with the rhythm of the nursery rhyme,

‘The queen was in the parlour, eating bread and honey.’

[2] ‘I have heard that a Roman poet is languishing in prison with head on hand’—probably a metaphor from a pillar (but the sense is far from certain).

[3] Utica was besieged by Scipio from 204 to 202 B.C.

[4] In the fabula togata or tabernaria the surroundings of the comedy were Roman, in the fabula palliata Greek, as in Plautus’ plays. Togata in a wider sense included tragedy as well as comedy.

[5] This term means the construction of a new play by uniting two old ones.

[6] The references are to the revised edition of Ritschl.

[7] A species of burlesque tragedy, called after its inventor Rhinthon, who flourished B.C. 300.

[8] R.H. ii. p. 431 trans.

[9] This shows that the ancient (rough alphabetical) order has been departed from. Some grammarian of the fifth century altered the position of the play on account of the reference to it in Epid. 213-5 (quoted above).

[10] I.e. the ‘Patruus’ written by the old Roman (lit., ‘son of the porridge-eater’).

[11] These games were celebrated in April. Plays were exhibited also at the Ludi Romani (September) and the Ludi Plebei (November).

[12] Much of the information on this head is taken from J. Brix’s edition of the Trinummus. Leipzig, 1888.

[13] This is shown in the universal classical usage of bene, male, etc.

[14] The references are to Vahlen’s edition.

[15] Thus the original name of Beneventum was Maleventum, i.e. ?a???e?ta, accusative of ?a???e??; cf. Agrigentum from ?????a?, and Tarentum from ???a?.

[16] Euhemerus of Messana, who wrote about the end of the fourth century B.C., tried in this work to show that the worship of the gods arose from the worship of deified kings and heroes.

[17] The Oscan form of Pacuvi.

[18] The term doctus refers to his knowledge of the Greek laws of artistic composition.

[19] After Ambivius’ name appears in most of the didascaliae ‘L. Hatilius Praenestinus.’ Probably this person was an actor at some later productions, and his name has in this way crept into the MSS.

[20] Tibiae were called pares or impares according as they were or were not of the same length and key. Duae dextrae were two pipes both playing the treble. Tibiae Sarranae, from Sarra, the old Latin name for Tyre, were a special form of tibiae pares.

[21] Mediocritas = t? ?s??, the intermediate style between t? ?d???, ‘the florid’ (ubertas), and t? ?s????, ‘the simple’ (gracilitas). See W. Peterson’s note on Quint. x. 1, 44.

[22] For the omission of names, cf. iv. 12 (Jordan), ‘dictatorem Karthaginiensium magister equitum monuit’ (of Hannibal and Maharbal).

[23] This means that Lucilius would represent the nom. plu. by -ei and the gen. sing, by -i.

[24] The fabula Atellana was a species of farce adopted by the Romans from the Oscan town of Atella in Campania. See Livy, vii. 2, for this and the early history of the Roman drama.

[25] Q. Hortensius Hortalus (B.C. 114-50), Cicero’s rival as an orator, and author of Annales (Vell. ii. 16, 3), a Rhetoric (Quint. ii. 1, 11), and love poems (Ovid Tr. ii. 441).

[26] According to ad Att. ii. 1, 3 (if genuine), Cicero intended to publish speeches 9-11 in a collection of ‘orationes consulares’ (‘Hoc totum s?a curabo ut habeas’).

[27] R.H. iv. 311 (note).

[28] Q. Asconius Pedianus (A.D. 3-88), probably a native of Padua, author of a commentary on Cicero’s speeches. The extant part is on Pro Cornelio de maiestate, In toga candida, In Pisonem, Pro Scauro, and Pro Milone. The commentary on the Verrines and Divinatio, which deals almost exclusively with the language, is spurious: the true Asconius confines himself to the subject-matter.

[29] The Epicurean philosophy was expounded in the writings of C. Amafinius, Rabirius, and T. Catius, whose opinions and literary style were alike distasteful to Cicero (Ac. i. 5; ad. Fam. xv. 19, 2).

[30] F. Ritschl, Opuscula, iii., p. 525.

[31] L. Schwabe, Quaest. Catull., p. 296. B. Schmidt, however (ed. of Catullus, p. 57), thinks that the Chronica are not referred to here.

[32] A life of Lucretius has been recently discovered by J. Masson (Journal of Philology, xxiii. 46), which was written by Girolamo Borgia in 1502. It gives B.C. 95-51 as the poet’s dates. Several new points were supposed to lend it a claim to authority, such as the statement that he was ‘matre natus diu sterili.’ This, however, has been shown to rest on a wrong reading of Q. Serenus Sammonicus’ Liber Medicinalis, xxxii., in a passage dealing with the barrenness of women, ‘hoc poterit magni quartus [liber] monstrare Lucreti,’ where partus, the reading of the oldest edition, was used. This, and other considerations, show that the vita does not rest on any ancient sources, beyond those which are still extant.

[33] Memmius wrote love poems (Ovid, Tr. ii. 433).

[34] Some ascribe these stories to Lenaeus, a freedman of Pompey, Sueton. Gramm. 15.

[35] Only inferior MSS. give Q., and the reading in c. 67, 12, ‘verum istud populi, fabula, Quinte, facit,’ is not to be accepted.

[36] Some critics, without sufficient proof, identify Volusius with the inferior poet Tanusius Geminus.

[37] Martial, of course, has here forgotten his dates.

[38] The incident has been borrowed from Plutarch by Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act iii. Scene 3.

[39] See p. 184.

[40] This appears to us to be an indirect proof that the half lines in Virgil are often complete as they stand.

[41] M. Valerius Probus of Berytus (Sueton. Gramm. 24) who flourished, according to Jerome, A.D. 56, prepared critical editions of Lucretius, Virgil, and Horace. A commentary on the Eclogues and Georgics passes under his name, but most of it is spurious.

[42] A grammarian of the fifth century A.D., who merely versifies Donatus.

[43] On this point Professor W. M. Ramsay writes to us: ‘Virgil’s farm was certainly not at Pietole (which is two miles south of Mantua, out in the flat plain): for (1) the farm was a long way from the city (cf. Ecl. 9, 59 sqq.); (2) it was beside hills (ibid. 7 sqq.); (3) woods were on or by it (cf. Donatus “silvis coemendis”), and the flat fertile valley was certainly not abandoned to forests. After exploring the country, I felt clear that the farm was on the west bank of the Mincio, opposite Valeggio, where the northern hills sink to the dead level of the Po valley.’

[44] His knowledge of science is reflected in his works. Cf. Georgics, passim, and Ecl. 3, ll. 40-2.

[45] The latter part of this statement is worthless: Augustus was only a child when Virgil came to Rome.

[46] Probus is manifestly wrong in saying that the distribution of land took place ‘post Mutinense bellum.’

[47] For details see H. Nettleship, Ancient Lives of Vergil, who holds that there was really only one eviction.

[48] The writings of Augustus are enumerated by Sueton. Aug. 85— (1) Rescripta Bruto de Catone, a reply to Brutus’ pamphlet on Cato; (2) Hortationes ad Philosophiam; (3) De Vita Sua; (4) Life of Drusus (Sueton. Claud. 1); (5) Poems: ‘Sicily’ in hexameters, Epigrams and Fescennine verses; a tragedy, ‘Ajax’ (never finished).

[49] Servius wrote ‘triennio’ perhaps because he thought only of the dates of Ecl. 1 and 10 (H. Nettleship, ibid.).

[50] C. Schaper’s view is that Ecls. 4, 6, and 10 were not written till B.C. 27-25 for a second edition. He supposes Ecl. 6 to allude to the marriage of Marcellus and Julia in 25 (referring 6, 3 to the Aeneid), and Ecl. 10 to be a lament for Gallus, who committed suicide B.C. 27.

[51] Iulus is properly spelt Iullus (as in inscriptions), and is for Iovillos, a diminutive from the stem of Iuppiter.

[52] L. Orbilius Pupillus of Beneventum, who in his ?e??a???? complained of the wrongs of his profession (Sueton. Gramm. 4 and 9).

[53] Maecenas wrote, besides smaller prose works, a history of his own times (Hor. Od. ii. 12, 9; Pliny, N.H. vii. 148).

[54] For Horace’s relations to Propertius see Ep. ii. 2, 91-101, and under ‘Propertius,’ p. 196.

[55] See G. Boissier, Nouvelles Promenades ArchÉologiques: Horace et Virgile (Paris, 1886).

[56] Dr. A. W. Verrall’s argument (Studies in Horace, pp. 25 sqq.) that Od. i.-iii. were published B.C. 19 is not convincing.

[57] Ed. by Mommsen in Ephemeris Epigraphica, 1892, p. 225.

[58] For Horace’s eclectic position in philosophy, cf. Ep. i. 1, 14-15,

‘Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri,
quo me cumque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes.’

[59] As suggested to us by Prof. W. M. Ramsay. For Horace’s opinion of Catullus cf. Sat. i. 10, 18-9,

‘Simius iste,
nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.’

[60] See Th. Mommsen, Sitzungsberichte der kÖnigl. preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 24 Jan. 1889.

[61] A Peripatetic of the third century B.C., who wrote a popular account of the literary and philosophical views of his school.

[62] E. Voss, Die Natur in der Dichtung des Horaz (DÜsseldorf, 1889).

[63] As pointed out by A. W. Verrall, Studies in Horace, p. 134 sqq.

[64] This poem is probably referred to by Hor. Od. iv. 4, 19-22.

[65] M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus, author of memoirs of the Civil War (Tac. Ann. iv. 34), love poems (Pliny, Ep. v. 3, 5), and works on grammar (Quint. i. 7, 35).

[66] Dessau, Inscr. Lat. Sel. 2925. Serg. stands for Serg[ia tribu], and is not a cognomen Sergio.

[67] See Pliny, Ep. v. 9, 2.

[68] This question was first satisfactorily worked out by T. Dyer, Classical Museum for 1847, p. 229 sqq.

[69] See under ‘Juvenal,’ p. 323.

[70] Pollio accused him of Patavinitas, i.e. the use of provincialisms (verba peregrina, as opposed to Latina, Quint. i. 5, 55, curiose loqui rather than Latine, Quint. viii. 1, 2).

[71] By A. Diepenbrock, L. Annaeus Seneca, p. 12 (Amsterdam, 1888).

[72] The praenomen ‘Gaius’ is rendered highly probable by the reading of the editio princeps and by an inscription found in Africa (C.I.L. viii. 10311).

[73] Les PoÈtes Latins de la DÉcadence, vol. i., p. 8.

[74] Antwerp edition, p. 89.

[75] Tacitus does not say openly that Seneca was privy to the murder. On the whole he is favourable to Seneca, either because he followed the authority of Fabius Rusticus, a friend of Seneca, or because Seneca perished afterwards through Nero’s agency, or because he thought Seneca deserved his consideration.

[76] Seneca’s influence on the Imperial policy, especially in the liberal view it took regarding religion, is well brought out by Prof. W. M. Ramsay, in his book, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, pp. 354 sqq.

[77] See the very large list of parallels collected by Heitland, Introduction to Haskins’ Lucan, § 51.

[78] See under Varro, p. 96.

[79] Ed. of Cena Trimalchionis, p. 7.

[80] See O. Hirschfeld’s note on this passage in RÖmische Verwaltungsgeschichte, p. 261.

[81] Messalla was a favourite of Gaius, Narcissus of Claudius.

[82] Pomponius was the author of Aeneas and other tragedies. Pliny calls him ‘consularis poeta,’ ‘vates civisque clarissimus’ (N.H. vii. 80, xiii. 83). Cf. Tac. Ann. xii. 28.

[83] Given with other examples by W. C. Summers, Study of the Argonautica (Camb. 1894), p. 27.

[84] Summers, ibid. p. 56.

[85] Cf. Tac. Hist. iii. 65.

[86] Mart. vii. 63.

[87] Mart. xi. 48; 49.

[88] Mart. viii. 66.

[89] Mart. ix. 68.

[90] The references are to L. FriedlÄnder’s edition (Leipzig, 1886).

[91] Ed. of Book x., Introd. p. 9 (Oxford, 1891).

[92] A passage probably inserted by the pseudo-Frontinus from memoirs of the genuine Frontinus to give an air of authenticity to his work.

[93] J. DÜrr, Das Leben Juvenals (Ulm, 1888). L. FriedlÄnder (ed. of Juvenal: Leipzig, 1895) attaches little importance to this and the other vitae, but his arguments do not appear to us to be convincing.

[94] E. G. Hardy (ed. of Juvenal: London, 1891, introd. p. 8) thinks that this is supported by Juvenal’s gentile name Iunius. As a representative of the middle classes he (thinks Hardy) could not have been related by blood to either of the two gentes of that name. Hardy also states that Decimus is a common praenomen of the plebeian gens Iunia, and suggests that Juvenal may have got his praenomen from them. There is no reason, however, to think that every Iunius must be related or associated in some way with one of these two gentes.

[95] The statement of the vitae, ‘ad mediam fere aetatem declamavit,’ may imply no more than that he continued his studies in private; but it must be observed that the usual meaning of declamare is ‘to attend college classes’; and the statement, in whatever way it is taken, must be looked upon as improbable.

[96] If the number I. is right, and this appears most likely. II. is the only other possible reading, and it must be noted that the second Dalmatian cohort was in Britain at the beginning of the second century, and probably had been there for a considerable time. Trib. in the inscription is a conjecture suggested by the vitae: praef., which is epigraphically possible, is preferred by some authorities.

[97] E. G. Hardy thinks that A.D. 87 was one of the years when duumviri quinquennales (appointed every five years) were elected in Aquinum, and hypothetically assigns Juvenal’s holding of the post to that year.

[98] C.I.L. vii. 1195.

[99] Cf. E. G. Hardy, ed. of Juvenal.

[100] Cf. E. G. Hardy, ibid.

[101] The reference in 4, 126, ‘De temone Britanno excidet Arviragus,’ proves nothing. It is the sort of reference that would be made by an Italian ignorant of Britain, and is, in fact, put into the mouth of one.

[102] The view that Sat. i. 33 sqq. refers to M. Aquilius Regulus, who died probably A.D. 105 (Pliny, Ep. i. 5, 14-15), is rejected by FriedlÄnder ad loc.

[103] H. Nettleship (Journal of Philology, xvi., p. 45) points out that C. Vipstanus Apronianus and C. Fonteius Capito were consuls A.D. 59, and suggests that this may be the year meant. This would give A.D. 119 as the date of composition.

[104] The scholiast connects with 4, 37-8.

[105] This story is rejected both by Hardy and by FriedlÄnder.

[106] Juvenal had a leaning to Stoicism: cf. Sat. 10 ad fin., and his references to fate, e.g. 7, 200; 10, 365; 12, 63. He believes in the gods (13, 247-9), but disbelieves the doctrines of the popular religion (2, 149 sqq.).

[107] The inscription records the appointment of Cilo’s sons and a woman Lutulla as trustees of a fund, the interest of which was to be disbursed to the people of Comum.

[108] Hermes, iii. 31 sqq.

[109] The inscription in Caria, formerly supposed to give P. as praenomen, is now shown to have been misread.

[110] The inhabitants of Terni (Interamna) erected a statue to Tacitus as to a fellow-townsman in A.D. 1514.

[111] Bull. de Corr. Hell., 1890, p. 621, quoted by Prof. W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 228.

[112] One of the speakers in the Dialogue, Curiatius Maternus, was the author of tragedies Medea and Thyestes, and of praetextae Domitius and Cato (Dial. 2-3).

[113] Various attempts have been made, especially in a work published in London, 1878, to prove, of course unsuccessfully, that the Annals were forged in the fifteenth century by the Italian scholar Poggio Bracciolini.

[114] Fabius Rusticus, a friend of Seneca, quoted also for the shape of Britain (Agr. 10).

[115] Cluvius Rufus, governor of Hispania Tarraconensis B.C. 69 (H. i. 8). Mommsen considers that he is one of the historians censured in H. ii. 101.

[116] Roth gives 71, Teuffel 75 at latest.

[117] See Quaestiones Suetonianae in Reifferscheid’s Suetonius, pp. 363 sqq.

[118] See H. Nettleship, Lectures and Essays (1885), p. 248 sqq.

[119] See Nettleship, ibid. p. 277 sqq.